Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Looking
for a common thread, or a new direction everyone is likely to enjoy?

One way to
spice up reading choices is for members to read and discuss a book about …
books. How natural is that?

There are dozens—not all good—but often they are
witty, informative, or wonderfully mysterious. I enjoyed Carlos Ruiz Zafron’s
“The Shadow of the Wind,” about a conspiracy in the world of antiquarian books,
but there are many other choices.

“An
Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England” by Brock Clark is fun to
read, though it may give the caretakers of these historical houses the shudders.
From the beginning, it’s downright witty: “I, Sam Pulsifer, am the man who
accidentally burned down the Emily Dickinson House in Amherst, Massachusetts,
and who in the process killed two people, for which I spent ten years in prison
and, as letters from scholars of American literature tell me, for which I will
continue to pay a high price long into the not-so-sweet hereafter.”

Others
I’ve liked (with an attempt to present a wide selection, leaving out some I
think most people have read, and others that I just didn’t care for):

The
following are on my to-read list: “Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader,”
by Anne Fadiman; “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore,” Robin Sloan (dubbed “a
literary adventure story for the twenty-first century” and just published; “Sixpence
House: Lost in a Town of Books,” Paul Collins; “Bound to Last: Thirty Writers
on Their Most cherished Books;” “A Skeptic’s Guide to Writers’ Houses,” Anne
Trubek; “The Man Who Loved Books Too Much: The True Story of a Thief, a
Detective, and a World of Literary Obsession,” Allison Hoover Bartlett; “The
Summer We Read Gatsby,” Danielle Ganek (look it up, book clubbers!); “The Night
Bookmobile,” Audrey Nieffenegger (author of “The Time Traveler”); “Ex-Libris,”
by Ross King (the same title as Fadiman’s book, but this time involving
history, mystery, treachery and books); “The Professor and the Madman: A Tale
of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary,” Simon
Winchester (I couldn’t resist buying it); and, just for you all, “The Jane
Austen Book Club,” Karen Joy Fowler—about, of course, a book group. The idea
can be done to death, just like novels with cooking themes and endless series
featuring cute detectives or sexy spies, but many of these books are good
reads; it’s as if anyone who dares write about books reveres them enough to do
it well.

Another
fascinating title—a must-read, for the name as well as the author, Nick Hornby:
“The Polysyllabic Spree: A Hilarious and True Account of One Man’s Sturggle
with the Monthly Tide of the Books He’s Bought and the Books He’s Been Meaning
to Read.” It’s Hornby (“High Fidelity,” “About a Boy”), so it has to be interesting!

This
list is by no means inclusive—space prevents that. Suggest your own. If it
sounds good, I’ll get it in down the road!

Book
groups around northcentral Massachusetts:

New Earth Book
Club
meets April 3 at Shrewsbury Public Library, 6:30 p.m., to discuss “Start Where
You Are: A Guide to Compassionate Living” by Pema Chodron. The group just
discussed Dr. Eban Alexander’s “Proof of Heaven,” which is making reading lists
across the board from spiritual to popular reads.

Greater
Worcester Humanists’Books It! Group will meet at 11 a.m.
Sunday, April 28, to discuss “The Science of Good and Evil” by Michael Shermer.
Group gathers at the Nu Café, Old Tatnuck Bookseller, 335 Chandler St.,
Worcester. Limited to 12 members of GWH.

Douglas Library
Book Group
will consider Hemingway’s “For Whom the Bell Tolls,” at Simon Fairfield Library,
6:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 9. Call 508-476-2695 for a copy of the book. New
members welcome. Homemade refreshments, inspired by the book, will be served.

The Women’s
Issues Book Group,
supported by the Worcester Chapter of the National Organization for Women, will
discuss the actual family living at “Downton Abbey” at its April 8 meeting. The
book is “Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle,”
by Lady Fiona, the Countess of Carnarvon. PBS offers a companion series called
“Secrets of Highclere Castle.” Meeting is at 7 p.m. at Barnes & Noble
Booksellers, 541 Lincoln St., Worcester.

Heywood Library
Reading Group
in Gardner, reports Ann Young, has chosen as its April 24 selection Hillary
Jordan’s “Mudbound,” set in Mississippi after World War II. Meetings are held
at the library the last Wednesday of each month at 4:30 p.m. Public welcome.